The area around Paranal and Armazones

This video shows the location of Cerro Paranal, home to ESO's Very Large Telescope, and Cerro Armazones, future home to the E-ELT. These are located high in the mountains of the Atacama desert, near Antofagasta in northern Chile.

The Chilean government has donated 189km2 of land to construct the telescope and associated facilities. It has also protected an additional area of 362km2 to safeguard the observatory site from mining activities and light pollution. This new protected zone is immediately adjacent to the Paranal site, making a total of 1270km2 complex dedicated to ESO’s astronomy.